GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Carmelo Anthony says it took great confidence for Jason Collins to come out as gay on Tuesday.

Except he didn’t exactly use the word confident.

“It takes big balls to do that, especially [in] the society that we live in, knowing that everybody gonna have something to say,” Anthony said Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Celtics at Madison Square Garden.

“So for him to step up to the plate and do that, I’m pretty sure that that opened the floodgates for a lot of other people.”